The present invention generally relates to a method of assembling content from several content providers into a single document and more particularly relates to a method of automatically creating compatible resource locators for content providers offering content on a network in order to access the content.
Composition of materials for a document has routinely been a manual effort. Decisions have to be made regarding content and layout as well as content currency. The content, itself, must then be obtained from the author, usually through a content provider such as a distributor or syndicator. Once it is obtained, the content is manually assembled and published or otherwise delivered to the consumer or subscriber. This technique is well known for newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, magazines such as Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, and thousands of other lesser known publications. While these thousands of publications cover a wide range of interests, from news to sports to fashion to model rocketry, they have one thing in common: they are intended to be read by a mass market. Conventionally, it is not economically viable for such publications to have a small readership, due at least in part to high marketing, production and distribution costs. In fact, many of today's publications are funded to a very large extent by the advertising contained within them. These advertisers are attracted to publications that can consistently deliver a large, reliable audience of consumers that will be exposed to their advertising.
While this mass market publication model has worked well for hundreds of years, it is not without its problems. One such problem is that a typical reader of a publication has a wide variety of interests, and no single mass market publication will be able to satisfy all these interests. For example, a reader who is interested in international news, golf, fly fishing, genealogy, and computers may have to subscribe to several different publications to satisfy these interests. Of course, since these publications are intended for a mass market, they will also contain a significant amount of material that the reader is not interested in and will not read. It goes without saying that if there is a significant amount of material a reader isn't reading, there is a significant amount of advertising the reader isn't reading either—as well as a significant amount of paper that is wasted. Advertisers know this, and agree to pay considerably less to a mass market magazine or newspaper per 1000 exposures to their ad than they would pay to a direct-mail generator that can provide a more specific guarantee that the people exposed to their ad are of a demographic group that will be much more likely to read their ad and be interested in it.
In addition, it is neither cost-effective nor time effective for most readers to subscribe to and/or read a large number of publications. Generally, the typical reader will only subscribe to a few publications that are of the most interest to them. The reduced readership level of the publications the typical reader chooses not to subscribe to, even though he would be interested in at least some of the editorial and advertising content contained inside, means that the publication receives less subscription and advertising revenue than they otherwise would. If many other readers make the same decision, the continued health of the publication may be in jeopardy, and the publication may be forced to go out of business. In fact, many publications do go out of business yearly for failing to attract a sustaining number of advertisers and readers—even if there are a large number of readers that would be interested in reading their publication, and a corresponding number of advertisers anxious to have these readers exposed to their ads. In general, publications that fail to attract a substantial mass market of people willing to pay for and/or read them cease publication. This is a shame, since many of these publications would enrich the diversity of information available to all readers, and would provide an avenue for lesser known writers and artists to practice their wares.
In more recent years, a new type of publication has emerged: the electronic publication. Readers of these publications typically sign onto a network, such as the Internet, via their computer, and read the publications online. Some of these publications, such as CNN.com and pointcast.com, allow users to state personal preferences on what type of material they want to read. Often, these personalized electronic publications include advertising, usually in the form of a banner ad that is placed on the top of the screen.
While these electronic publications have been an interesting development in the distribution of information, they still represent a tiny fraction of the information that is published. Many readers of these electronic publications complain that they are very difficult to read, especially for long periods of time. While it might be convenient for a reader to sign onto the Internet to look at the CNN.com web site for a brief summary of late breaking news, this reader would most likely only spend a few minutes at the site, and would likely still subscribe to the more traditional print media such as Newsweek or the Washington Post. They would also likely spend significantly more time reading the more traditional printed publication than they would spend reading the electronic publication, and correspondingly, spend more time being exposed to the ads in the traditional printed publication.
The aversion to lengthy viewing of electronic terminals and the waste, in a least consumer's time and materials, has been overcome by document delivery services such as “Instant Delivery” offered by Hewlett-Packard Company at http://www.instant-delivery.com and described, in part, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/325,040 filed on Jun. 7, 1999 on behalf of Jon A. Brewster et al.
Conventionally, assembly of materials for such electronic delivery has been a manual process consuming a significant amount of human energy in what could be considered a repetitive job requiring human supervision. Moreover, as additional content providers offered material for electronically mediated publication, the task has become even more significant.
Accordingly, there is a need for a process that automates the activity of obtaining content that is of a specified variety for each subscriber, individually, from a plurality of content providers. After the content is believed to be received its existence should be automatically verified before the content is assembled into a document for delivery to the subscriber.